An Experience of Inculturation in Madagascar

Following a short stay in Tananarive, I am now and for some months ahead in the Community of Andranobe, situated less than ten kilometres to the Northeast of Anstirabe. The Sisters’ farm is quite isolated. The living quarters, built in brick, are at the end of an alley bordered by rose bushes, sheds, stables and water tanks behind brick walls topped with sharp spikes to protect the property.

Externally, there are ten hectares of land cultivated by the Sisters; rice, maize, soya and haricot beans, and as well there is a pine wood which has not yet been explored but the Community has plans to draw from it, in years to come, material for wood work and heating.
Internally, a large garden and a few dozen fruit trees largely provide enough for the Sisters and workers to eat. There are five Sisters, two of whom arrived recently about the same time as me. I could never have dreamed of a warmer welcome. I am grateful to them and thanks to them I already feel at home on the farm.
My work so far is quite light because the Sisters are afraid to tire me! Winter and the dry season are coming to an end and the rain and storms are beginning. We have finished the ploughing and we’ve started to sow haricot beans and maize. As well as work in the fields, there is also the care of the animals: about twenty milking cows, a few goats, twenty pigs and some hens. The cows are milked by hand, of course, and the milk is all used for making cheese to sell to a Cooperative in Antsirabe. As well as this I spend an hour each day teaching French to the workers who live permanently on the farm.

For me, all of this is very positive and I’m impatiently looking forward to many more new discoveries!

Anne Marie JOLIET,